List of 10 Remarkable Religious Renaissance Paintings - History Lists HISTORY LISTS You are here: History Lists · Art · List of 10 Remarkable Religious Renaissance Paintings List of 10 Remarkable Religious Renaissance Paintings The great painters of the Renaissance period, many of whom focused on religious themes were often commissioned by well-to-do patrons including the Pope himself. Religion was infiltrated in everyday life in this era, deeply resonating with both the painters and those they worked for. Many of these religious paintings are among the greatest works of Renaissance art as a whole. Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese The Wedding at Cana (or The Wedding Feast at Cana) by Paolo Veronese is an oil on canvas that was painted in 1563 for the Benedectine Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. It depicts the Biblical Wedding Feast at Cana where according to the New Testament, Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. The Biblical story, however, is set into Veronese’s time although some figures are depicted wearing antique clothing.

It is said that Veronese painted himself among the 130 participants of the wedding feast (clothed in white with a viol next to Titian and Bassano). The painting with dimensions of 666 cm x 990 cm (262 in x 390 in) is displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The School of Athens by Raphael One of four frescoes by Raphael in the so-called Raphael Rooms in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican was painted by the Italian Renaissance artist between 1509 and 1511. The School of Athens revels Raphael’s interpretation of philosophy as a divine form of knowledge, with Plato and Aristotle placed in the center of the scene, just like Jesus is in the center of Paolo Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana. In total, twenty-one ancient Greek philosophers are painted, engaging in lofty discourse. Raphael’s fresco doesn’t have religious character as such but its location within a Greek cross-shaped building in Vatican has been interpreted as an attempt to reconcile Christianity and pagan philosophy.

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci The mural on the back wall of the dining hall of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, was painted from 1495 to 1498. It differed from other frescoes of the era in that da Vinci created it by using experimental pigments directly on the dry plaster wall. But even before it was finished, it suffered from paint flaking off the wall. Da Vinci repaired the damage but it continued to crumble and was inadvertently damaged over the years both by the effects of time and unfortunate events such as Napoleon’s troops using the wall for target practice and the 1943 bombing which destroyed the room’s roof and exposed the fresco to the weather elements. Not much of the original painting survived and what can be seen today are mainly repairs. The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo The famous fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City was painted from 1511 to 1512. Unfortunately, Michelangelo’s masterpiece and one of the most famous works of both High Renaissance and religious art suffered from candle smoke damage, going back for centuries, which caused the fresco to darken and assume a gloomy shadow.

In the 1980s, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel went through an extensive restoration which revealed colors and details that were hidden for centuries. The restoration, however, has also caused a great deal of controversy among art historians. Madonna del Prato (also known as Madonna of the Meadow) by Raphael The artist painted this oil on board in 1505 whilst he was in Florence; though the painting is now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. Madonna del Prato, also known as Madonna of the Meadow depicts Virgin Mary looking down to baby Jesus and his cousin John the Baptist who is kneeling and offering a cross to Jesus. The painting was created for Taddeo Taddei and remained in the Taddei family until 1660s when it was sold to Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria. Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist by Bernardino Luini Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist was painted by Bernardino Luini in the first half of the 16th century. The painting depicts a scene from the Gospel of Mark, when Salome demands the head of John the Baptist for having danced before King Herod and his guests.

The King who promised to give her anything she wants, reluctantly agreed and had John the Baptist beheaded in the prison. Luini’s painting shows the moment when her request is met. The painting is displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. San Zaccaria Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini This oil on canvas was painted by Giovanni Bellini in 1505. It is one of the finest examples of the so-called sacra conversazione or “sacred conversation” which was developed by Renaissance Italian artists and replaced the rigid polyptych form of the earlier periods. Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus in the center are depicted with four Christian saints – St. Peter the Apostle and St. Catherine of Alexandria at the left, and St. Gerome and St. Lucy at the right - and an angel playing a violin at the foot of the altar. The painting is housed in the San Zaccaria church in Venice, Italy. Pesaro Madonna by Titian Created from 1519 through 1526, the painting depicts the Virgin and the Child on the top of a raised platform. The commissioner of the painting, Jacobo Pesaro is shown kneeling before the Virgin and presented to her by Saint Peter.

The red banner with papal arms is held by an unknown knight who also holds two Muslin prisoners, probably symbolizing Pesaro’s success as the commander of the papal fleet. At the right is depicted Saint Francis of Assisi who presents five kneeling members of the Pesaro family to baby Jesus. Titian made the painting for Pesaro chapel in the Frari Basilica in Venice where it remains until today. The Last Judgment by Hieronymus Bosch The triptych that was created by the Dutch painter sometime between 1505 and 1510 consists of three panels: the left panel depicts the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve being tempted by the Serpent on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the central panel depicts the Last Judgment with Jesus on the throne as the judge of the world, while the right panel depicts the Hell which is thematically very similar to the central one. But instead of Jesus, it includes the Satan who receives the souls of the damned. Bosch’s triptych is currently owned and displayed in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder Like its name suggests, Bruegel’s painting depicts the Biblical Tower of Babel which was built by the unified humanity with an aim to reach the heaven. Angered by the building project, God decided to prevent it by scattering the people throughout the world and confusing their languages so that they were unable to return and continue from where they left off. The painting that was created in 1563 can be seen in the Kunsthistorishes Museum in Vienna. SIGNS: ANIMALS APE: In art it depicts malice. ASS: Humility. Patience. Animal of the poor. BASILISK: A fabled creature, based on Psalm 91:13: naming four animals for the Antichrist. These were interpreted by St. Augustine as four aspects of the Devil, who was trodden down by the triumphing Christ. Although a well-established symbol, and often represented in the Middle Ages, the basilisk rarely appears in Italian paintings of the Renaissance. BAT: Night. Desolation. BEAR [wild]: Cruelty and evil influence. In the Old Testamtent it represented the kingdom of Persia.

BEAR [tame]: Christianity.Typical is the life of St. Euphemia, who, when thrown to wild animals in the arena, was shown honor by a bear who appeared tame, and would not eat her. BEE: Tireless activity. Regal power. Chastity. Also associated with St. Rita of Cascia. BIRDS: Symbol of the "winged soul." Many artists have the Child Jesus holding a bird in His hand. BLACKBIRD: The black feathers and melodious song represented the temptation of sin. Tradition tells us that one day when St. Benedict was praying the Devil appeared to him in the form of a blackbird which tried to divert him from his devotions. St. Benedict was not fooled: he made the Sign of the Cross and the Devil departed in haste. BULL: Depicts strength; sometimes St. Sylvester is shown with a bull at his feet because he brought back a dead bull to life. If the bull is made of brass, this is a symbol of St. Eustace who was Martyred with his family by being encased in a brass bull under which a fire was ignited.

BUTTERFLY: Resurrection of Christ. CAMEL: Represents the virtue of temperance because he can go a long time without water. Also a sign of royalty in the Old Testament. Camel's hair is one of the the symbols of St. John the Baptist. CAT: Symbolizes laziness and lust gnerally because of its indolent habits, although the cat is a symbol of good, for instance, when it is shown with the Virgin because tradition has it that a cat gave birth to a litter of kittens in the stable at Bethlehem. Several Annunciation images portray the Virgin Mary with a little cat near her feet. CENTAUR: This mythic animal, part horse, part man is a symbol of St. Anthony Abbot because a mysterious animal appeared to him to point the way to reach St. Paul the Hermit in the desert. COCK: Because the cock crows early in the morning, it symbolizes vigilance, but when depicted in a painting of St. Peter, it signifies his denial of Jesus Christ and subsequent repentance. Thus the cock is now a symbol of the Passion. [John 13:38] CRANE: Vigiliance. Loyalty and good works.

Good order in monastic life. It is thought that at night some cranes maintain watch for the others. CROCODILE: Hypocrisy. DOG: Fidelity. Loyalty. Watchfulness. Orthodoxy. There are many examples of the faithfulness of dogs, such as the dog of [St.] Tobias and St. Roch, which brought bread to the Saint and remained at hs side. A dog with a flame is a symbol of St. Dominic. Occasionally black and white dogs were used as symbols of the Dominicans [Domini canes, that is dogs of the Lord] because the friars wear black and white robes. DOLPHIN: Resurrection. Faith. Love. Society. Since they swim alongside ships, they symbolize Christ guiding the Church. Often the dolphin is used to depict the whale of Jonah. When the dolphin is pictured with an anchor it represents the Catholic Church. DOVE: Purity. Innocence. Peace. At the time of the flood, when Noah sent out for the last time the dove from the ark, it brought back an olive branch to show that the waters had receded and that God made peace with man.

Under the Mosaic law the dove was used during the purification ceremony after the birth of a child. Thus one sometimes sees paintings of the Presentation of the Child Jesus with Joseph bearing two white turtledoves. [Luke 2:22, 24] As an emblem of purity the dove sometimes appears on top of St. Joseph's rod to show that he was chosen to be the husband of the Virgin Mary. The dove was seen by the father of St. Catherine of Siena above her head while she was in prayer. The most important use of the dove in art, however, is as the symbol of the Holy Ghost, which first appears as such at the Baptism of Christ [John1:32]. The dove, symbol of the Third Person the Holy Trinity, is shown in images of the Trinity, Baptism, the Annunciation and with the Host and or Chalice at Holy Mass. Seven doves are used to represent the seven spirits of God or the Holy Spirit in its sevenfold gifts of Grace.

This refers to the prophecy of Isaiah 11:1, 2: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of His roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." The dove is also connected with the lives of several Saints other than St. Catherine. For instance, it is the attribute of St. Benedict because he saw the soul of his dead sister Scholastica fly up to Heaven in the shape of a white dove. The dove is also used as an attribute of St. Gregory the Great, for the dove of the Holy Spirit perched upon St. Gregory's shoulder while he wrote. DRAGON: Satan. Dragon chained or underfoot: The conquest of evil. The dragon as the enemy of God is vividly portrayed in Revelation 12:7-9: "And there was war in Heaven: Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his Angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in Heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his Angels were cast out with him." The dragon, expelled from Heaven, continues his war against God. Thus, he is depicted as the devouring monster who angrily destroys his victims. The dragon is the attribute of St. Margaret, and of St. Martha, both of whom are said to have fought, and vanquished, a dragon. It is also the attribute of a number of other Saints, including St. George of Cappadocia, who slew the dragon 'through the power of Jesus Christ.' The dragon appears with the Apostle Philip, St. Sylvester, and the Archangel Michael, who is often shown with a dragon under foot, in token of his victory over the powers of of darkness. The serpent, symbolizing the Devil and Satan, is depicted as the tempter of Adam and Eve. 'And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat' [Genesis 3:13].

Thus, the serpent represents in general the wily tempter that betrays man into sin. The serpent is sometimes portrayed at the foot of the Cross to signify that the evil power responsible for man's fall has been overcome by the power of Christ, Who died that man might be redeemed. EAGLE: The eagle may generally be interpreted as a symbol of the Resurrection. This is based upon the early belief that the eagle, unlike other birds, periodically renewed its plumage and its youthful vigor by flying near the sun and then plunging into the water. This interpretation is further borne out by Psalm 103:5: '. . . thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.' The eagle is also used to represent the new life begun at the baptismal font and the Christian soul strengthened by grace. 'But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles . . .' [Isaiah 40:31]. The eagle is said to have the ability to soar until it is lost to sight, and still retain its ability to gaze into the blazing midday sun. For this reason, it has come to symbolize Christ.

In a more general sense, it symbolizes those who are just; or stands for the virtues of courage, faith, and contemplation. More rarely, when it is depicted as a bird of prey, the eagle suggests the demon who ravishes souls, or the sins of pride and worldly power. The eagle also symbolizes generosity. It was believed that the eagle, no matter how great its hunger, always left half its prey to the birds that followed. The eagle is the particular attribute of St. John the Evangelist. The vision of Ezekiel 1:5, 10: ". . . out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. ..as for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion . . . the face of an ox . . . the face of an eagle," is interpreted as referring to the four evangelists. Because St. John, in his Gospel, soared upward in his contemplation of the Divine nature of the Saviour, the eagle became his symbol. In a more general sense, the eagle came to represent the inspiration of the Gospels.

It is from this symbolic interpretation that the lectern, from which the Gospels are read, is often given the form of a winged eagle. EGG: Hope. Resurrection. The meaning is taken from the manner in which the young chick breaks forth from the egg at its birth. ERMINE: Purity: the is small animal has a whitish fur and is said to prefer death to being defiled. FALCON [wild]: Evil thought or action. FALCON [tame or domestic]: Holy man or Gentile converted to Catholicism. Courtliness: a symbol of the page accompanying the Magi FISH: Baptism. Believers. The symbol of Christ Himself, the most frequent symbolic use because the five Greek letters forming the word 'fish' are the initial letters of the five words: 'Jesus Christ God's Soul Saviour'. In this sense, the fish symbol was frequently used in Early Christian art and literature. The fish is also used as a symbol of Baptism, for, just as the fish cannot live except in water, the Christian cannot live save through the waters of Baptism.

In Renaissance imagery, the fish is given as an attribute to Tobias because the gall of a fish restored the sight of his father Tobit; it is also given as an attribute to St. Peter, an allusion to his being a fisherman; and to St. Anthony of Padua, who preached to the fish. FLY: The fly has long been considered a bearer of evil or pestilence. In Catholic symbolism the fly is a symbol of sin. It sometimes appears in pictures of the Virgin and Child to convey the idea of sin and redemption. The fly as a bringer of disease was sometimes shown with the goldfinch, a 'saviour-bird' against the disease. FOX: Cunning. Fraud. Lust. Cruelty. Traditionally the symbol of cunning and guile, the fox symbolized the Devil. Though it was shown frequently in sculpture during the Middle Ages, it was for the most part confined to book illustration during the Renaissance. FROG: This has two opposite meanings: 1. Because of its reappearance after winter's hibernation, the Resurrection. 2.

Because of its continual croaking and the fact that one of the plagues of Eygpt was a rain fo frogs [Chapter 8], it is sometimes the symbol of heretics or the repulsiveness of sin itself. More loosely, it is interpreted as a symbol of those who snatch at life's fleeting pleasures; hence it represents worldly things in general. GIRAFFE: In the Renaissance the giraffe was depicted more because of its strange appearance and its rarity among animals in Europe than for any symbolic meaning. GOAT: Fraud. Lust. Cruelty. The damned at the Last Judgement. This interpretation is based upon a long passage in the Bible (Matthew 25:31-46) which relates how Christ upon His coming, shall separate the believing from the unbelieving, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. In the Renaissance the goat was usually shown in order to distinguish the sinners from the righteous. GOLDFINCH: The goldfinch is fond of eating thistles and thorns, and since all thorny plants have been accepted as an allusion to Christ's crown of thorna, the goldfinch has become an accepted symbol of the Passion of Christ.

In this sense, it frequently appears with the Christ Child, showing the close connection between the Incarnation and the Passion. GOOSE: Since the time of the Romans, the goose has been a symbol of providence and vigilance. The legend of the Capitoline geese that saved Rome from the invasion of the Gauls is well known. In Catholic art the goose is sometimes given as an attribute to St. Martin of Tours, because a goose is supposed to have revealed his hiding place to the inhabitants of Tours, who had come to call the Saint to be their bishop. GRASSHOPPER (Locust): The grasshopper, or locust, was one of the plagues visited upon the Egyptians because the Pharaoh's heart was hardened against the Word of the Lord. Accordingly, the grasshopper when held by the Christ Child is a symbol of the conversion of nations to Catholicism. This meaning is also derived from Proverbs 30:27: "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands," a passage early interpreted as referring to the nations formerly without Christ for their King. St. John the Baptist was said to have fed on locusts.

GRIFFIN: This mythic creature, usually depicted with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, is used with two different and opposite meanings; on the one hand to represent the Saviour; on the other, because it is a combination of the preying of the eagle and the fierceness of the lion, to symboliz those who oppress and persecute Christians. HARE/RABBIT: Lust. Hare/Rabbit at the feet: Victory over lust. The hare, itself defenseless, is a symbol of men who put the hope of their salvation in the Christ and His Passion. A white hare is sometimes placed at the feet of the Virgin Mary to indicate her triumph over lust. HOG: The hog is used to represent the demon of sensuality and gluttony. It is frequently shown as one of the attributes of St. Anthony Abbot, who is reputed to have vanquished this demon. HORSE: In ancient times the horse was the emblem of the sun, as the ox was that of the moon. In the Renaissance, however, the horse was most often depicted as a symbol of lust.

This interpretation is based on Jeremiah 5:8: "They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife." HYENA: The unstable. Those who feed on false doctrine. LAMB: Innocence. Gentleness. Patience. Humility. Symbol of Christ in His sacrificial role. Many scriptural passages give authority for this symbolism. One reference is John 1:29: "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" The Holy Lamb is often depicted with a nimbus, standing upon a small hill from which four streams of water flow [Revelation 14:1]. The hill represents the Church of Christ, the mountain of God's house. The streams represent the four Holy Gospels, the four rivers of Paradise, ever flowing and refreshing the pastures of the Church on earth. In pictures where Christ is shown as the rescuing shepherd, the lamb is also used to symbolize the sinner. This subject, usually called the Good Shepherd, is very frequent in Early Christian art, but was seldom used in the Renaissance.

During the Renaissance the lamb was often depicted in representations of the Holy Family with the Infant St. John. Here, the lamb alludes to St. John's mission as the forerunner of Christ, and his recognition of Christ as the Lamb of God at the time of His Baptism. This meaning is indicated by the portrayal of St. John the Baptist pointing to a lamb which he usually holds in his left hand. A variation on this theme can be viewed HERE. The lamb (Latin, agnus) is given as an attribute to St. Agnes, who was Martyred because she declared herself to be the bride of Christ and refused to marry. It is also found as an attribute of St. Clement, who was guided by a lamb to the spot where he found water. LARK: The lark, because it flies high and sings only when in flight toward Heaven, has been taken as the symbol of the humility of the priesthood. LEOPARD: The leopard is a symbol of sin, cruelty, the Devil, and the Antichrist. It sometimes appears in representations of the Adoration of the Magi to show that the Incarnation of Christ was necessary for redemption from sin. LION: Strength. Our Lord. Courage.

Fortitude. Kingliness. The lion is used in Renaissance art with various meanings, depending upon the circumstances. In general, when it is used it is emblematic of strength, majesty, courage, and fortitude. Because it once was believed that young lions are born dead, but come to life three days after birth when breathed upon by their sire, the lion has become associated with the Resurrection, and this is why it is symbol of Christ, the Lord of Life. The lion is one of the four animals that appear in the prophecy of Ezekiel. He is the symbol of the Evangelist Mark because St. Mark in his Gospel dwells most fully upon the Resurrection of Christ and proclaims with great emphasis the royal dignity of Christ. The winged lion is invariably the attribute of St. Mark, and appears also as the emblem of Venice, because this city was under the protection of St. Mark. St. Jerome is also closely identified with the lion. According to tradition the Saint removed a painful thorn from the paw of a lion, who thereupon became his close and faithful friend. It was a medieval belief that the lion slept with its eyes open. For this reason, he also became a symbol of watchfulness.

In rarer instances the lion, because of its pride and fierceness, was used as symbol of the Prince of Darkness, this interpretation being suported by Psalm 90:13: "Thou shalt tread upon the lion an adder . . ." This passage is interpreted as Christ triumphing over the Devil. In addition, lions appear as attributes of St. Mary of Egypt, St. Euphemia, St. Onuphrius, and St. Paul the Hermit. OWL: The owl, since it hides in darkness and fears the light, has come to symbolize Satan, the Prince of Darkness. As Satan deceives humanity, so the owl is said to trick other birds, causing them to fall into the snares set by hunters. The owl also symbolizes solitude and, in this sense, appears in scenes of hermits at prayer. Its most ancient-thought attribute, however, is that of wisdom, and with this meaning, it is sometimes shown with St. Jerome. In another sense, the owl is an attribute of Christ, Who sacrificed Himself to save mankind, "To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death . . ." [Luke 1:79].

This explains the occasional presence of the owl in scenes of the Crucifixion. OX: Patience. Strength. Service. Endurance. Sacrifice. The ox, a sacrificial animal of the Jews, was often used in Renaissance painting to represent the Jewish nation. It is also a symbol of patience and strength as indicated aboveand almost invariably, the ox and the ass appear together in paintings of the Nativity. In the writings of some of the early Christian fathers, the ox is accepted as a symbol of Christ, the true sacrifice. This symbol is similarly used to represent all who patiently bear their yoke while laboring in silence for the good of others. The winged ox is the attribute of St. Luke because of his emphasis upon the sacrificial aspects of our Lord's atonement as well as upon the Divine priesthood.

PARTRIDGE: In a good sense, the partridge is used as a symbol of the Church and of truth; but it is ordinarily symbolic of deceit and theft, and in a more general sense, of the Devil: "As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst, his days, and at his end shall be a fool." [Jeremiah 17:11] PEACOCK: In Catholic art the peacock is used as the symbol of immortality. This symbolism is derived from an ancient belief that the flesh of the peacock does not decay. It is with this meaning that it appears in scenes of the Nativity. The 'hundred eyes' in the peacock's tail are sometimes used to symbolize the 'all seeing' Church. The peacock's habit of strutting and displaying the beauty of its feathers has caused it also to become a symbol of worldly pride and vanity. A peacock's feather is sometimes an attribute of St. Barbara, in reference to Heliopolis, the city of her birth.

PELICAN: According to ancient belief, the pelican, which has the greatest love of all creatures for its offspring, pierces its breast to feed them with its own blood: It is on this basis that the pelican came to symbolize Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, because of His love for all mankind. In this sense, it also symbolizes the Eucharistic Sacrament. This interpretation is supported by Psalm 101:7: "I am like a pelican of the wilderness," which is an accepted allusion to Christ. The pelican is sometimes shown nesting on the top of the Cross. PHOENIX: The phoenix was a mythic bird of great beauty which lived in the Arabian wilderness. Its life span was said to be between three hundred and five hundred years. Periodically, it burned itself upon a funeral pyre; whereupon, it would rise from its own ashes, restored to all the freshness of youth, and would tenter upon another cycle of life. The phoenix was introduced into Christian symbolism as early as the first century, when the legend of this bird was related by St. Clement in his first Epistle to the Corinthians.

In early Catholic art, the phoenix constantly appears on funeral stones, its particular meaning being the resurrection of the dead and the triumph of eternal life over death. The phoenix later became a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, and commonly appears in connection with the Crucifixion. In another sense, the phoenix stands for faith and constancy. Though popular in the art of the Middle Ages, the phoenix is rare in Italian Renaissance paintings. RAM: Symbol of Christ. Leader of the herd. Because the ram is the leader of the herd, it is used as a symbol for Christ. Also, in the same way that the ram fights with the wolf and vanquishes him, so Christ battles with Satan and is victorious. The ram, the animal God caused to be placed in a thorny bush so that Abraham might sacrifice it in place of his son Isaac, represents Christ crowned with thorns and sacrifIced for mankind. In a general sense, the ram is used as symbol for strength. RAT/MOUSE: The rat, or the mouse, because of its destructiveness, is symbolic of evil. It is rarely seen in Renaissance art except as an attribute of St. Fina. The mouse is also a symbol for St.

Gertrude of Nivelles, the patron of those who fear mice. RAVEN: According to a Jewish legend, the raven was originally white, but its feathers turned black when it failed to return to the ark, from which Noah had sent it to find out if the flood abated. Because of the blackness of its plumage, its supposed habit of devouring the eyes and the brain of the dead, and its liking spoiled flesh, the raven was selected as a symbol of the Devil, who throws the soul into darkness, invades the intelligence, and is gratified by corruption. The raven appears in a more favorable light in relation to certain Saints. It is the attribute of St. Vincent because God sent a raven to guard his sacred remains. The raven is also the attribute of St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit because it brought them a loaf of bread each day while they lived together in the desert. The raven, as symbolic of solitude, is associated with these hermit Saints. SCORPION: The scorpion is one of the symbols of evil. The sting of the tail of the scorpion is poisonous and causes great agony the person who is stung.

It is often mentioned in the Bible, ". . . their torment was the torment of a scorpion, when it striketh a man" [Apocalypse 9:5]. Because of the treachery of its bite, the scorpion became a symbol of Judas. As a symbol of treachery, the scorpion appears on the flags and shields held by the soldiers who assisted at the Crucifixion of Christ. SNAIL: The snail was believed to be born from the mud, and to feed upon it. It was, therefore, interpreted as the symbol of the sinner, and of laziness, because it made no effort to seek food, but ate what it found at hand. SNAKE: Satan. Evil. This is because the Devil came in the form of a "serpent" or snake to Eve in the Garden of Paradise. SPARROW: Considered to be the lowliest among all birds, the sparrow came to be used as a symbol of the lowly, the least among all people, who were, nevertheless, under the protection of God the Father; for even the sparrow came to earth only through the will of God, and received from Him its means of life.

It is also a symbol of the Holy Family, who lived a humble, lowly life in obedience to the will of God. SPIDER: The spider is used symbolically, first to represent the miser, for it bleeds the fly as the miser bleeds the poor; second, to represent the Devil, for the Devil prepares his traps as the spider, does its web; and third, to represent the malice of evil-doers whose webs will perish like those of the spider. The cobweb is a symbol of human frailty. STAG/HART/DEER/HIND: Piety.Faithful Christian longing for God. Christ the Savior. The stag takes its symbolic significance from Psalm 41:1: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." Thus, the stag has come to typify piety and religious aspiration. Similarly, because the stag seeks freedom and refuge in the high mountains, it has been used to symbolize the solitude and purity of life. The stag, as the attribute of St. Eustace and St. Hubert, is shown with a crucifix between its horns. The stag without the crucifix is an attribute of St.

Julian the Hospitator. The stag or hind is also the symbol of St. Giles, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers because every day for a considerable period of time, when the Saint was living in the forest, a hind came to him to be milked as would a cow, thus supplying the hermit Abbot with milk. STORK: The stork is a symbol of prudence and vigilance, piety, and chastity. It was associated with the Annunciation because, as the stork announces the coming of spring, the Annunciation to Mary indicated the Advent of Christ. It is possible that the present north European and American fable whch is sometimes told to children that newborn babies are carried to their mothers by storks, may be derived from the association of this bird with the Annunciation. SWALLOW: In the Renaissance the swallow was a symbol of the Incarnation of Christ. For this reason, it appears in scenes of the Annunciation and of the Nativity, nestling under the eaves or in holes in the wall. It was thought that the swallow hibernated in the mud during the winter, and its advent in the spring was looked upon as a rebirth from the death-like state of winter.

For this reason it also became a symbol of resurrection. UNICORN. The unicorn, according to myth, was a small animal, similar in size to a kid, but surprisingly fierce and swift with a very sharp, single horn in the center of its forehead like the rhinoceros. Suposedly no hunter could capture the animal by force, but it could be taken by means of tricking with bait, that of a pure virgin. The unicorn, sensing the purity of the maiden would run to her, lay its head in her lap, and fall asleep. Thus it was captured. For obvious reasons the mythic unicorn was early accepted as the symbol of purity in general and of feminin chastity in particular, an allegory of the Annunciation and the Incarnation of Christ, born of a Virgin. Thus, the unicorn is usually an attribute of the Virgin Mary, bul also of St. Justina of Padua and of St. Justina of Antioch, who retained their purity under great temptation. The unicorn is mentioned many times in Scripture, in truth the rhinoceros, for this term was not yet coined. One instance is Psalm 91:11: "But my horn shall be exalted like the unicorn ..

." WHALE: According to ancient legend, the huge body of the whale was often mistaken by mariners for an island, and ships anchored to its side were dragged down to destruction by a sudden plunge of the great creature. In this way, the whale came to be used as a symbol of the Devil and of his cunning, and the whale's open mouth was often depicted to represent the open gates of Hell. The whale also appears in the Biblical account of Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale and disgorged three days later. Allegorically, the experience of Jonah is likened to Christ in the sepulchre and His Resurrection after three days. Unfamiliarity with the appearance and habits of the whale, and even with the identification of the Biblical sea-monster as such, prevented the artists of the Italian Renaissance from painting naturalistic whales. Rather, Jonah's monster was, to them, either something in the way of a dragon, a great shaggy fish, or a dolphin. WOLF: Heresy. Gluttony. False prophets. The Devil. Yet, in sharp contrast, the wolf is sometimes used as an attribute of St. Francis of Assisi.

This is based on the famous story of the wolf of Gubbio. A wolf that had been doing great damage was being hunted by the people of Gubbio, when St. Francis encountered it. He addressed it as 'Brother Wolf,' and protected it as a fellow creature who knew no better, and set about to reform it. WOODPECKER: The woodpecker is usually symbolic of the Devil, or of heresy, which undermines human nature and leads man to danmation. Contact Us BBC - Religions - Christianity: Mary Print this page A central figure In this section, six academic experts explain what we know about the life and times of Mary, the mother of Jesus. A central figure Christians at the tomb of the Virgin, Jerusalem, by Jean Lecomte du Noüy, 1871 © Mary has always been a central figure in Christianity. She's always been absolutely key, right from that moment early in Luke's Gospel when she's told "Blessed are you amongst women". The interesting thing for modern scholars is that she's being reassessed because we've become much more sensitive to female characters in the biblical story and because female characters in the biblical story are often quieter than the men.

In a contemporary world we want to reimagine Christian origins and involve women much more. And one of the most important women in that story is Mary, of course, and that's why it's worth hearing her voice in a fresh way. One of the reasons that Mary has maintained her popularity is that there were all the makings in the biblical text for a fascinating story, and yet with much of the detail missing. Often when details are missing, tradition will do its own part in trying to fill in those details and imagine those details to make that person's life a little bit fuller and understand a bit more about them. Reflecting on stained glass images of Mary in a Norfolk church, Sister Wendy Beckett thinks that Mary's popularity in the Middle Ages was due to her depiction as a caring mother. Download the Adobe Flash player to view this content One of the roles that Mary fulfils is the mother that we see in early Christianity; she's the role model for mothers. She also plays an important role throughout Christian history in providing us with a female that's right at the heart of events. Christianity, after all, can be a fairly male-dominated affair.

The Holy Trinity always sounds to contemporary feminists rather male dominated; there's a Father, a Son and there's a Holy Spirit, and the characters in the New Testament are all male. But here we actually have somebody who we can interact with as a female in Christian tradition. In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions Pagan images of Mary Many people, Protestants particularly, object to the figure that Mary has become. She is seen almost as a goddess figure, possibly derived from the fact that many Pagans became Christians in the early centuries of the church and they believed in goddesses, so Mary became to them the goddess. Many people would say that was something that went wrong with Christianity. There's nothing about Mary being a goddess in the New Testament. Jesus is God and human so therefore Mary is simply human. Christian theology has always maintained that she was a human being and not God, but nevertheless, she was a human being in a very important and intimate place in the story of Jesus. There have been many images of Mary through the centuries. Some have derived from the Bible, such as the image from the book of Revelation showing Mary with a crown of 12 stars.

She represents the early church with the 12 tribes of Israel represented by the stars. There have been images of Madonna and child; Mary seated in a chair with the child on her lap. Some of these images look very similar to images that we know about from some of the pagan goddesses at the time. Isis and Horus, from a statue in the Berlin Museum © Madonna Enthroned by Fra Filippo Lippi, mid 1400s © Isis, for example, was seated in such a chair with the infant Horus on her lap in the same way. When Christianity was spreading across the Empire, it's clear that it deliberately took images from the pagan world in which it lived and into which it spread and used those images. Old holy wells and shrines were turned into Christian shrines. In Egypt a shrine of Isis was deliberately and self-consciously re-created as a shrine of Mary. One of the important cities for Mary was Ephesus, where the goddess Diana was worshipped. It's not surprising that Mary drew upon the imagery associated with the goddesses, because that was the imagery the people knew. In the same way, we have imagery of Christ with a triumphant crowd looking like an emperor.

Betrothal and marriage A young Mary: the Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1478 © Later Rabbinic sources tell us that Jewish girls could be betrothed as early as 12 years and a day or any time after the age of twelve and a half. The actual marriage involved two stages. First of all there was the betrothal and then - after an interval of several months, perhaps a year - the young girl would have been taken to the house of her husband to be and at that moment, once they started to live together, they were considered properly married. This could have been quite a traumatic process for a young girl; to leave behind her mother and father and all the people she was used to, and go to live in an alien household. The choice of husband was made by the family, not by the girls themselves. It was a legal agreement between the father and the husband. Girls did not have a part in that legality. Pregnant out of wedlock Mary might have been barely into her teens at the time of her marriage A girl who became pregnant out of wedlock would have been terrified. The whole social structure was set up for children to be born within marriage.

Genealogy and ownership of children was seen as very important. Girls who became pregnant outside marriage would probably have had to leave their homes and their families. There was the potential of being sold into slavery or of being stoned to death. She may have been married off quickly or banished from her home and village, which may have led a women to prostitution or slavery when she had no way of supporting herself. According to the New Testament Joseph, after being visited by an angel, decided not to send her away or to expose her but to marry her. Women in Mary's time A woman's life Jewish women in first century Palestine had very limited legal and economic rights. It's particularly in the domain of economic rights that this is a big problem. When a girl was in the household of her father, any work that she did or wages that she earned would belong to her father. Once she married, her wages and products that she made belonged to her husband. There were very few times when she would have any sense of financial and economic autonomy. A woman didn't have the right to divorce her husband, but he could divorce her. If she divorced she would lose her children as well. Most inheritances that she received would go straight to her husband.

The husband would maintain legal responsibility for the children. Christ in the house of his parents, Sir John Everett Millais, 1850 © We have multiple sources for knowing about women's lives in 1st century Roman Palestine. There are literary sources such as the Bible, texts from writers such as Josephus and Pliny and the Apocryphal texts (although these have to be read with a pinch of salt as they refer to a slightly later time). There are the early Rabbinic materials, which provide a good deal of information. There's also archaeological evidence and material culture to give us clues about how women lived and what kind of houses they lived in. There is a great deal of information about Roman women's lives in Roman texts and novels throughout the provinces of Rome. Mary, like most Jewish women and girls of her time, would have spent most of her day working. Almost as soon as she could walk she would have been helping out with the many chores it took to keep daily life going. Stoves needed to be tended, beds needed to be made, homes need to be kept in repair, food needed to be prepared, animals needed to be tended whether one was on a farm or in a village.

Food needed to be prepared for the future, so meat and vegetables needed to be preserved for future times as well. Water had to be drawn from cisterns and from wells. An incredible amount of work had to be done every day and it was done primarily by women and girls. People at this time ate a fairly straightforward diet. Most days people would have eaten lots of bread from wheat or barley, cereals or gruels. Olives, dates and figs were also eaten. Meat was eaten every now and again, usually after a big festival and the slaughtering of a lamb or goat. A lot of wine was drunk too. Political situation Politically Mary would have lived at quite a difficult time. She would have seen the end of the reign of Herod the Great and all the revolts that accompanied the end of his reign. She would have seen the Roman Legions coming in to Galilee to put down these revolts and all the atrocities associated with the legions. We know from Jewish writings of the time that the Romans burnt cities and took people away into slavery .

Galilee was politically fairly stable throughout most of Jesus' lifetime but there would have been isolated pockets of resistance and certainly no one would have liked the idea that Judea to the south was a Roman province, or that the Romans were present in the Holy City of Jerusalem and in the temple itself. Roman Praetorian guardsmen, first century © Galilee in the 20s was occupied by Romans and would have been an oppressing place for the Jews. If a Roman soldier said "you've got to carry my backpack one mile", they'd have to do it; they had no option. The Romans forced the Jews to pay taxes to Caesar. At night they might have heard the soldiers march by with their swords clanging, and they would have been afraid. One can imagine there was talk about trusting in God and that maybe in their lifetime he would send a Messiah. The Jews, as they became more and more oppressed, may have became more and more obsessed with God. They may have thought that this could be the time for the Saviour to come. And it was in this highly charged theological atmosphere that Mary wove her way to the well, perhaps holding in her arms the infant Jesus.

Top Mary's virginity and immaculate conception The immaculate conception of Mary has no historical basis at all. This is something that was invented by later Christians to extend the idea of her holiness. The purity, the perpetual virginity, all of those kind of themes end up with Mary (as well as Jesus) having to be conceived immaculately. One of the difficulties that many people today have with the virgin birth is not so much historical, the idea that it couldn't happen, but theological; the idea that it must have happened in order for Jesus not to have had any sin. Mary, Saint Anna (Mary's mother) and baby Jesus, by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1510 © Early Christians like Augustine tended to think that Adam's original sin was passed on in the act of sex and that therefore in order for Jesus to be holy and sinless it was necessary for him not to have been born from parents who had had sex. Theologically people now have more problems with the Virgin Birth than they would have done in the past. In the past it was almost necessary to have a virgin birth in order to get Jesus out of this rather sticky difficulty of having been born with ordinary human parents who'd had sex.

In the New Testament, many of the women characters are either so holy and pure that it's unrealistic, or they're prostitutes. And Mary falls into the category of being holy and pure and absolutely without sin; and she carries on in that trajectory right through the tradition so that she gets more and more holy and her virginity is stressed more and more and her holiness throughout her whole life is stressed, so that she too becomes sinless. She is assumed into heaven rather than having to die, she herself gets born of an immaculate conception; so you get a development in the idea of the perpetual virginity, because she's begun a journey to becoming ever more holy, ever more pure which in the end can only end up with those concepts of perpetual virginity. Origin of the virgin birth story The virgin birth is a very powerful story which explains the theological truth that Jesus is the son of God - not just the son of God from his resurrection or from his baptism, as perhaps the gospel of Mark might suggest, but the son of God from the moment of his conception. To what extent it's historical is much more difficult to analyse. One of the difficulties is that we hear nothing at all of a virgin birth tradition, until late in the first century.

Only in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which were probably written in the 80s or 90s of the first century, is there a mention of the virgin birth. Another difficulty with the virgin birth idea is that the texts in Matthew and Luke are clearly overlaid with references to the Old Testament. They're evocative of the typical Old Testament annunciation narrative: the angel going down to one or two of the parents; the insurmountable problem, which usually in the Old Testament is the fact that the parents are elderly or barren ; the angel proclaiming that the problem is going to be surmounted; and the birth ensues. It's very similar to the stories about the birth of Isaac or the birth of Samson or Samuel. Matthew and Luke are indebted to the Old Testament and they're drawing on these Old Testament ideas. The story of the birth of Jesus has to be even better. Mary can't be an elderly barren woman: instead she's a young girl who's also a virgin. Miraculous birth Mary visits Elizabeth to tell her the angel's news in The Visitation by Mariotto Albertinelli, 1503 © There were lots of stories of miraculous births in Greco-Roman society.

Famous figures tended to attract these stories as people speculated on what it would have been like to be present at the birth of such a person. Astrology was also important, so it was felt that if a person was going to be very prominent their fate was already preordained, that in their horoscope one would see how wonderful they were going to be. It's not surprising they began to think that perhaps their birth was miraculous and wonderful. In the Greek and Roman system of gods and goddesses, the goddesses themselves could be said to be virgin mothers. Athene and Artemis were regarded as virgins. They gave birth and then dipped themselves into the rivers so their virginity was renewed. The Greek and Roman stories are not quite the same as the virgin birth stories in the gospels. They differ in that there's a male god and a human mother and the male god comes down to earth and impregnates the mother in a very graphic way. In the gospel stories there's no mention of God or the Holy Spirit taking the form of a human being and actually coming down and impregnating Mary. Rape There was an ancient legend from the Jewish side that Mary was the victim of a rape.

They even gave us the name of the Roman soldier who was supposed to have carried out this rape: a man called Panthera, which apparently was quite a common name for Roman soldiers. Recently some scholars looked at this theory and decided it was simply an ancient slur, anti-Christian slander made up in the second century to try to prevent belief in Jesus. Some say that perhaps it isn't so impossible as previously we thought. There are certain clues in the New Testament to suggest that Mary was in quite a terrible state after the beginning of the pregnancy. The fact that she went in great haste to see Elizabeth. The fact that she talks about herself as a "lowly handmaid": why is she lowly? Some people believe the lowliness was because she was actually the victim of a crime. The strength of the idea is that just as Jesus in his crucifixion identifies with those who suffer , Mary, as victim of rape, is somebody that women who suffer can identify with. The problem of the theory is that Jesus could have been the son of a Roman soldier, which is even more unpalatable for people than the idea that Mary wasn't a virgin.

The idea that Jesus was somehow genetically dependent upon a rapist is more difficult to swallow and it would take a tremendous radical leap of faith to accept that kind of theory. Virginity throughout the birth The book of James establishes that Mary was a virgin during the birth of Jesus - in other words she remained intact, physically, despite the birth, which is miraculous. It led to later speculation that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life, before her pregnancy, during the birth of Jesus, and after. The book of James begins to speculate on the birth of Jesus in quite graphic detail. The idea that Mary is intact comes from the idea that she suffers no pain. This is theologically important to the early Christians because of the curse, mentioned in Genesis, of the two human beings who are responsible for the fall . Adam's curse is to work in sweat in the fields and Eve's curse is to bear children in pain. The idea that Mary and Jesus are free of sin, that they are immaculate, leads us to think that Mary wouldn't suffer the pain of Eve, that she would have a painless birth.

The Seven Sorrows of Mary, Albrecht Dürer, circa 1494-1497 © Some would argue that this makes her rather distant from the ordinary woman. The way that the tradition has dealt with that is to say she had a painless birth but she wasn't without pain because she saw her son die on the cross . The great tradition of Mary as the "Mother of Sorrows" comes into being and there are often depictions of Mary as a woman in tears, of a woman laid low by grief. John's gospel refers to the crucifixion as a laborious birth, so if Mary does have a painful birth in the Christian tradition she has it at the crucifixion. Second hand merchandise The word virgin developed in western culture has become a synonym for purity and good behaviour. But virginity in Jewish society at the time that we are talking about was about ensuring that the new husband wasn't getting second hand merchandise. Virginity was only important for the moment of the first marriage. The first marriage was more important; for example, in the Jewish marriage contract for a first marriage they paid twice as much as for a second marriage.

Virgins went out on the wedding procession with their hair open and flowing so that everyone could see and it would then be remembered that she had been a virgin when she entered her husband's house at that event. In fact after a while, instead of being a prize, virginity became a burden. We know this from several Jewish burial inscriptions where women were buried and the messages of mourning on their tomb say how sad it was that she died a virgin. Jesus's siblings Saint James (James the Just), brother of Jesus, in an Eastern European icon © From the first century to the present day there has been a debate about Jesus having brothers and sisters. According to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus had at least four brothers who survived into the time when he was an adult. In Mark's Gospel, when Jesus goes to Nazareth to speak in the Synagogue the people in the crowd say to him, "Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?". They also say, "Are not his sisters here with us?" So there are at least two sisters and possibly more. Regularly mentioned by Paul and sometimes mentioned by other early Christian writers, was Jesus's brother James.

James seems to have had a very important role in running the church from very early on in Jerusalem but it's a role that's become forgotten in later Christian tradition. Later Christian traditions have redefined these brothers and sisters, either as cousins or as Joseph's children by an earlier marriage, in order to preserve the idea of Mary's perpetual virginity. Top Was Mary at the crucifixion? It is quite likely that Mary was present at the Crucifixion . Mary is only explicitly said to be at the Cross in John's gospel but there are hints that she was there in the other gospels. Kristi Begråtande (Lament for the dead Christ), Geertgen tot Sint Jans, 1485-90 © In John's Gospel she's actually placed at the Crucifixion; Mary stands with the disciples, and they're entrusted to one another's care by the dying Jesus from the cross. But it's unlikely that Jesus would have been able to communicate with anyone from the cross. In the other gospels the relatives of Jesus stand at a distance and Jesus wouldn't have been able to have a conversation with them. What does seem to be historically accurate is that Mary was in Jerusalem at this time.

She could conceivably have been at the crucifixion. It's difficult to work out what happened to Mary after Jesus' crucifixion. The last reference there is to her comes early in Luke's second volume, The Acts of the Apostles. Luke was the only one of the gospel writers to write a second volume. He mentions Mary being in Jerusalem not long after the crucifixion. The other possibilities are either that she went home to Nazareth and went to live with family there, or she went to Ephesus and lived with the "beloved disciple" who's mentioned in John's gospel. One possibility is that Mary went to Ephesus some time after Jesus' death and resurrection. The reason for this theory is that John, the Beloved Disciple, is supposed to have written his gospel from there and this same John is said to have been at the cross with Mary when Jesus entrusted each of the disciples to each other. Ephesus is relatively unlikely to be the place where Mary went. The idea is purely based on the tradition of her association with John and John's gospel. The other possibility is that Mary simply stayed in Jerusalem after the crucifixion.

The reasoning for this is that we know James, her son (or her step-son), was there. Moreover, when James died, a cousin of Jesus' called Simeon became the next leader of the Church in Jerusalem. This suggests that there was a family enclave in Jerusalem. If this is the case then it makes it quite likely that Mary was one of the people who stayed there and held them all together. Mary may have died not long after Jesus' death and resurrection. Even if she was very young when she gave birth to Jesus she would have been in her forties, at the youngest, at this stage, which is already very good by ancient life expectancy, especially for a woman who's given birth. A meditation on Mary's presence at the Crucifixion Sarah Jane Boss, Director of the Centre for Marian Studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter, considers the role of Mary in the Christian story. In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions After the crucifixion The story of Mary after the beginning of Acts is not known but there are traditions about it and it's important as part of the Christian story.

Mary was associated with a beloved disciple in John's gospel and Jesus says the beloved disciple is to take her to his home. Women had to be looked after by men in that society so when Jesus could no longer look after her, the beloved disciple looks after her. The beloved disciple, who is not named in John's gospel, is identified later as being John. Dormition of Mary, Ukranian icon, 1500s © Traditions vary. One tradition is that Mary stayed in Jerusalem, died in Jerusalem and Jerusalem claims her tomb. So in a sense Jerusalem claims that Mary was the mother of the church in Jerusalem and James stayed in Jerusalem. But James himself had to flee Jerusalem when things got very difficult so perhaps Mary had to leave Jerusalem at some point. In another tradition the disciple John goes to Ephesus and it's assumed that Mary would have gone with him and spent the rest of her life in Ephesus. At the beginning of the 19th century an interesting German nun had a vision about Mary's life. In that vision she saw Mary's life ending in Ephesus and she also described the house where Mary lived.

As a result of that vision archaeologists dug up a house which is very similar to the one she described and this is now revered as Mary's house. Top New Testament evidence The story of Mary comes in all sorts of different contexts of the New Testament and we have to piece the different bits together. Matthew tells us a little bit, Luke tells us some different things, Mark doesn't tell us very much, John tells us some different things again. It's not one big coherent story that takes you from her birth to her death. We just have little spotlights of certain parts of her life. Panel from an altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden, circa 1430 © The New Testament is quite disappointing in some ways because it doesn't tell us as much about Mary as we'd like to know. The place that we find most about Mary from is Luke's gospel. Luke thinks that Mary is one of the key characters in the drama so he tells the whole story of Jesus' birth from Mary's perspective. In particular, Luke writes about the time of the conception of Jesus and exactly what Mary was thinking, what she was doing, what her reactions were when the Angel Gabriel talked to her.

Other parts of the New Testament tend to be rather negative about Mary. Matthew tells the story from a traditional male perspective. He sees the whole story from Joseph's perspective. Mark's gospel tends to lump her together with Jesus' family and regards her as being someone who stands in the way of Jesus and his gospel and his message. The gospel writers don't actually want to tell very much about Mary unless the action is really revolving around something important about Jesus. Mary does appear outside the New Testament, but the documents start looking very much like pieces of ancient fiction. The best source for her is a document from the second century called the Proto-Evangelium of James. It's a parochial text and it talks in great detail about her parents, her upbringing, her age when she conceived Jesus and so on. The disappointing thing about it is that most of it is probably made up. The fact that Mary is in the New Testament at all is significant because it deals with Jesus and the growth of the early church; there's actually very little reason to mention anything at all about Mary. The New Testament tells us very little about his father Joseph so the fact that she's prominent shows that there was some interest in Mary in the early church years.

Joseph and baby Jesus by unknown artist, 1700s © It is important to remember that all of the gospels were written significantly later than the death of Jesus. Matthew and Luke, who do refer to Jesus' birth, were probably written almost a century later than his birth. Each of the gospels was composed in a different environment at a different time with particularly different interests in mind. Each one of them has a slightly different theological overtone, each of them is writing for slightly different purposes and thus each has its own particular traits. There are very few references to Mary outside the New Testament. Later Jewish writings refer to her by her Jewish name, Miriam, and say that she's a hairdresser and that Jesus is the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier called Panthera. The problem with these references is they are at least from the 200s - quite possibly as late as the 500s - so they're substantially later than the New Testament and probably reflect a lot of the hostility between Jewish and Christian groups at that late date.

Question: What name is given to any work of religious art which depicts the baby Jesus with his mother?
Answer: Madonna and Child